Donors step up to the plate (tectonics), keep earthquake class in Amesbury

Carol Feingold / Amesbury@wickedlocal.com

Friday

Apr 6, 2012 at 12:01 AMApr 6, 2012 at 6:18 AM

Twice a week for four months seismologist Stacy Moulis of Boston College comes to AMS to teach the sixth-grade science students of Gale Regis and Brian Smith.

It all started five years ago when Regis secured a $10,000 grant from the Amesbury Educational Foundation, Inc. (AEFI), a $2,500 grant from The Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank, and $1,100 in private donations for hands-on training in seismology.

Teachers and students at AMS collaborate with seismologists from Weston Observatory, a research laboratory of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Boston College, as they monitor earthquakes that occur around the world.

Caron and his classmates Emmett Walsh, Brian Edmands and Evan Aldrich created “Don’t Cry Over Spilt Milk,” a structure composed of a plastic milk bottle, straws, cups and a pendulum attached to a tray. When subjected to a simulated earthquake, the water in the bottle spilled into the cups indicating the direction of the earthquake.

“We angled the straws just right so when the water lands in them it pools in the cups,” Walsh said.

“There’s a pendulum inside the bottle,” Edmands explained, “so when it shakes the water will splash to both sides.”

“We worked on it in class for about three hours,” Aldrich said. “The main reason I liked it is because we got to create our own idea. We had the freedom to mess around and create our own ideas.”

“Don’t Cry Over Spilt Milk” was just one of many fanciful structures created by the sixth- grade science students and subjected to simulated earthquakes, all part of a four-month unit on earthquakes. Twice a week for four months seismologist Stacy Moulis of Boston College comes to AMS to teach the sixth-grade science students of Gale Regis and Brian Smith.

It all started five years ago when Regis secured a $10,000 grant from the Amesbury Educational Foundation, Inc. (AEFI), a $2,500 grant from The Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank, and $1,100 in private donations for hands-on training in seismology.

The funds allowed AMS to join the Boston College Educational Seismology Project (BC-ESP) and receive its own AS1 seismograph and accompanying computer, but that was far from all of it. Teachers and students at AMS collaborate with seismologists from Weston Observatory, a research laboratory of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Boston College, as they monitor earthquakes that occur around the world.

“The program has been a huge success,” Regis said. “For five years my students have enthusiastically monitored and recorded earthquakes from all over the world. The excitement that occurs when an earthquake is ‘coming in’ is unbelievable. Students monitor the seismograph so closely and get to actually watch the readout of the seismic waves as they pass under our building.”

Last year the funding for the program was cut. Regis turned to AEFI for partial funding and received $1,733 to keep the connection going with BC-ESP.

“A few weeks later I was approached by one of the board members of The Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank,” Regis said. “The bank members had heard of our dilemma and wanted to help. The bank gave me $5,567 to be able to reinstate the entire BC-ESP program for the school year of 2011-12. What an amazing gift for our students.”

Twice a week for four months Moulis comes to AMS as part of the earth science curriculum.

“I’m a scientist, a seismologist, from Boston College,” Moulis said. “My job is two parts. I do research on seismology for Boston College at the Weston Observatory and I work with students and teachers in schools and libraries. I train teachers on the seismograph and hands-on activities they can bring to the classroom. Our curriculum is inquiry-based so it’s all hands-on experiments. It’s fun.”

This is her second year at AMS teaching students. The curriculum covers the inside of the earth, plate tectonics and seismic waves, how and why an earthquake happens, and how to construct earthquake-resistant buildings. They also learn how the seismograph works, how to run it, and how to analyze seismograms.

While Moulis teaches all grade levels, middle-school students are among her favorites.

“They have so many great questions and we have great discussions,” Moulis said. “They already have a background and they’re eager to learn. I give them some background information, a mini-lecture, and then we do a hands-on activity and they end up answering their own questions. They’re great. Any time you bring hands-on activities and labs into the classroom, they’re engaged.”

It’s a win-win situation, she said.

“Gale and Brian are wonderful teachers and that makes it even more successful because I learn from them as well.”

The Boston College Seismology Project began something that AMS had never seen before: direct contact with an actual scientist in a sixth-grade classroom, Regis said.

“It creates extra excitement and a different type of thinking,” she said. “They begin to question more and they realize a lot of science is theory. When a scientist comes into the room, they step up. They take notes like high school students would, and they work hard to focus more, because they know it’s special.”